Codex Skin v1.7.0: Hermes compatibility fixes

Codex Skin v1.7.0: Hermes compatibility fixes

Sorry about the broken styling after the recent Hermes update. I noticed that several parts of Codex Skin no longer matched the updated interface, so I went back through the skin and repaired them. This release also refines the layout and makes the conversation history rail more responsive.

Fixed

Tabs, browser and layout

• Restored Codex styling for chat, browser and other panel tabs, including selected-tab backgrounds, labels and close controls.
• Restored Sessions/Bots header styling and the hidden minimize control with Hermes' updated panel structure.
• Corrected browser header colors, tab-row height and equal spacing above and below the tabs.
• Refined the browser navigation row and address-bar spacing. The Codex dark theme now uses a cleaner, borderless address field.
• Removed the unused header band above the chat when there are no chat tabs and the sidebar and browser already carry the window controls.
• Removed the unwanted rounded chat corners above and below integrated tab headers. The tabs themselves keep their rounded shape.
• Made the vertical sidebar/chat and chat/browser separators finer without shrinking their resize handles.

Composer and conversation

• Restored the rounded Codex appearance of the Tasks, Queue and Background panels above the composer, including in split chats.
• Adapted task-list scrolling and scrollbar styling to the updated status-panel structure, keeping the rounded edges clean.
• Centered the icon, filename and close button in single-line artifact rows, including HTML previews.
• Restored Clean transcript behavior with Hermes' updated response grouping, while preserving final replies and the existing safety checks.
• Corrected model-name and reasoning-effort display in the composer by reading Hermes' native labels rather than the skin's own reformatted text.
• Fixed the composer's scroll-edge fade remaining active after a long draft becomes short enough to fit again.

Improved conversation history rail

• Fixed reversed-looking markers: the ticks now align on the left and expand to the right.
• Restored question-and-answer previews with Hermes' updated message structure and prevented the native tooltip from competing with the skin's preview.
• Gave the ticks more vertical spacing and quieter, theme-aware colors.
• Added a clearer current-message marker. Hover temporarily transfers emphasis to the previewed message; ordinary idle ticks no longer darken together.
• The rail now hides when its own chat pane is too narrow, independently of the overall window width.
• Removed the trailing width animation during pointer movement and repeated geometry measurements from stable hover frames. The exit animation remains.
• Refreshes cached positions when needed so moving, resizing or scrolling the pane does not leave the hover effect using stale coordinates.
• Preserved native message jumps, keyboard navigation and virtualized scrolling, with the visible ticks aligned to their click targets.

Removed

• Titlebar autohide. The command-palette option and its behavior have been removed. The updated header layout no longer needs a separate hide-and-reveal mechanism. Tabs and window controls now remain accessible directly, without the old hover-triggered transitions. Old saved values no longer activate it; native Hermes window controls remain untouched.

Maintenance

• Clarified contribution rules: fixes for Hermes-native bugs belong upstream, not as workarounds inside Codex Skin.
• Expanded automated regression coverage for the updated Hermes layout, split panes, history navigation, hover behavior, narrow panes, themes and cleanup.
• Added a developer-console activation message with the loaded skin build and UI component counts to help diagnose loading issues.

Compatibility and updating

This release targets Desktop builds with the September 16, 2026 panel-header and virtualized-timeline changes (Hermes commit 2efbbef). Older Desktop builds, including code from Hermes Agent 0.21.3 / v2026.9.14 or earlier, should stay on Codex Skin v1.6.0 and use its pinned download rather than main.

The compatibility target is the Desktop build, not a blanket remote Agent-version threshold; Hermes Agent and Hermes Desktop can update independently. This release has been tested against the updated layout only and does not guarantee compatibility with all future builds.

The plugin folder and internal IDs are unchanged, so existing installations update in place. The remaining Composer width, Pinned user messages and Clean transcript settings are retained.

Codex Skin does not modify Hermes source code. This release does not claim to fix Hermes-native Queue persistence or session-routing issues.